In Perspective: A new way to elect the president
Updated: November 5, 2012
Right now, the winner is determined by
the Electoral College process.
In general, states declare one winner
and put all their electoral votes toward that candidate.
Illinois wants to go around that
process and use the nationwide popular vote to elect the president.
For that to happen- things would have
to get pretty dramatic next week.
WCIA 3'S Cynthia Schweigert puts the possibility of that
new process in perspective.
To the relief of many, the ads, the
arguing, and the negativity that comes with an election, is about to be over.
But, more than a month after we cast
our ballots, on December 17th the Electoral College makes the real
decision.
Brian Gaines is a political science
professor at the U of I, he says this year there's speculation about whether
electors and the voters will make the same choice.
"There's actually some chance it
could split this year, so I think it's on people's minds and it could be
decisive," he says.
Decisive, as in states deciding
whether this system is a good one.
Right now, the general rule is that
the electors give their votes to the candidate who wins their state. Illinois
wants something different.
Our state is part of the National
Popular Vote Plan.
It gives the people the power to elect.
"All of the states say they'll
give their electors to the candidate who wins the most votes nationwide as soon
as sufficiently many states agree to do this that they collectively have the
majority of the Electoral College- more than 270 electors," Gaines says.
Right now, that movement is about
halfway there.
Gaines says so far, mostly states that
lean towards Democrats have agreed to this but, he says if Mitt Romney wins the
popular vote and loses the Electoral College vote, Republican states may jump
on board.
"By 2016, 2020- if enough states
were to join they would all essentially ignore their state winner and award
their elector according to the national vote winner," says Gaines.
Gaines says it's unlikely, but as we
know politics can surprise us.
You may remember the last time the
popular vote clashed with the Electoral College vote was in 2000.
